By ANGELA GALLOWAY, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, July 31, 2006

The City Council will ask voters to give it the authority to fire several city department directors -- but it's letting the police and fire chiefs off the hook.

The council voted Monday to ask Seattleites this fall to subject the heads of the departments of parks, finance and personnel to council confirmation every four years. The council already approves the initial appointments. But once they're in office, they answer only to the mayor.

The changes are proposed as amendments to the city's charter, which essentially is Seattle's constitution. Voters will decide the proposed amendments in November.

In separate legislation that does not require voter approval, the council voted to subject five other department heads to reconfirmation. They head the departments of human services, information technology, the Seattle Center, executive administration and fleets and facilities.

Two departments were removed from the list Monday afternoon after a spirited council discussion about the balance between government accountability and public safety.

"I don't believe the fire chief and the police chief should be subject to this," Councilwoman Jan Drago said. "These are not positions that we would want in any way politicized."

Councilwoman Jean Godden said: "I feel strongly that it goes too far. Probably the rest of it is a generally good idea."

But Councilman Richard Conlin said exempting those chiefs would simply mean that such oversight "will only take place behind close doors."

Councilman Peter Steinbrueck "reluctantly" dropped the positions from the list to protect that part of the charter amendment package from failing.

In the end, only one council member, President Nick Licata, voted against the reconfirmation proposal. He said the exclusion of the two departments jeopardizes accountability.

"The Police Department is the largest department in the city," Licata said. "It's in some way the most important. Making the police chief aware that the council is not walking away (from oversight would be) an important policy message to send."

Mayor Greg Nickels recently asked the council to substantially delay consideration of the changes. He suggested it first establish a citizens review committee to consider the proposal.

After months of studying the package in a special committee, Steinbrueck said Nickels' proposal was both overdue and an overreaction.

The council proposed a number of other charter amendments, including one to allow the City Council to appoint members to the Seattle Planning Commission.